AMHERST — Protestors upset that top University of Massachusetts officials didn’t go far enough in promising to divest from fossil fuels after two days of sit-ins were arrested by police for refusing to leave the Amherst flagship’s main administration building.
UMass officials ordered protesters removed from the Whitmore Administration Building around 9 p.m. Tuesday. Fifteen people were arrested on trespassing charges, a university spokesman said.
Administrators had agreed to advocate for divestment from fossil fuels following a phone conversation Tuesday afternoon involving representatives of Divest UMass — the group that organized the sit-in beginning Monday — and top university officials.
UMass released a statement Tuesday evening pledging to “advocate for a policy that would see the five-campus UMass system divest and prohibit direct investment in fossil fuel companies.”
President Martin Meehan and Victor Woolridge, chairman of the board of trustees, said that was “a logical next step” after the university last year divested its direct investments in coal companies.
They said the trustees and the University of Massachusetts Foundation, which manages the university’s $770 million endowment, would address the proposal at their next meetings.
According to the statement issued by UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski, “Despite the pledge of advocacy for divestment from fossil fuels by Meehan and Woolridge, the student protesters chose to continue their occupation of the Whitmore Administration Building after it was closed for business.
“… Following the students’ continued insistence to remain in the building, UMass Amherst officials decided about 9 p.m. to order about 15 protesters removed from Whitmore and to charge them with trespassing.”
The protesters who were arrested were brought from the building in small groups.
They were taken to the UMass Police Department and were scheduled for arraignment Wednesday in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown.
An estimated 12 to 15 police officers were involved in making the arrests, and there were about 100 people outside Whitmore supporting Divest UMass.
Supporters outside chanted and cheered for arrested protesters as police brought them from the building. Divest UMass organizers told the crowd they were ready to continue the sit-in Wednesday morning and hold a rally later that day.
Organizers of Divest UMass had vowed to remain in Whitmore to press their demand that UMass commit to divesting from fossil fuel companies by Wednesday.
The sit-in in the office of the chancellor at Whitmore, which began with 25 students on Monday morning, had grown to over 100 students, faculty, and community members by Tuesday afternoon, according to UMass Amherst sophomore Mica Reel, a spokeswoman for the UMass Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign.
Four representatives of the divestment group spoke for an hour by telephone early Tuesday afternoon with Meehan and Woolridge, but the outcome did not satisfy the protesters. That conversation took place before the UMass statement pledging to advocate for divestment.
“They didn’t give us any commitment on our divestment asks,” Reel said of the university officials. “They don’t understand the urgency with which they need to act, but student leaders and community members do.”
The group is demanding that the board of trustees, which oversees the entire five-campus UMass system, commit to divesting from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies by the end of the day Wednesday.
Beginning at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Divest UMass protesters occupied the UMass Amherst main administration building in what organizers described as a “nonviolent” protest. Protesters lined the hallway leading to the office of Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy.
Also Monday, Divest UMass held a noon rally outside the Student Union, attracting a crowd of 150 people. After the rally, protesters marched to Whitmore where 20 others joined the sit-in, according to Reel.
Protesters agreed to leave the building by closing time at 5 p.m. on Monday when university officials announced the phone call had been arranged for protesters to voice their demands and receive a determination from Meehan and Woolridge about whether the UMass Foundation “will be given a public directive to fully divest.”
The nonprofit UMass Foundation manages the university’s $770 million endowment, according to Robert P. Connolly, the UMass vice president for strategic communications.
Access to Tuesday’s phone call was restricted to the four students representing Divest UMass, and they gathered in Whitmore conference room 337A, according to Vice Chancellor of University Relations John Kennedy.
Although Divest UMass organizers declined to comment on which four representatives attended the conference call or what was said during the session, they agreed the results did not satisfy their demands.
“We didn’t get what we wanted,” said UMass senior Filipe Carvalho, another spokesman for Divest UMass.
“We want to make sure the university understands it is committed to the commonwealth. The fossil fuel industry does not embody those values, and it is unacceptable,” Carvalho said.
“There shouldn’t be any more hesitation,” Reel said. “UMass has a duty to act in the interest of the public good … and we are hoping the administration decides to lead with us.”
Divest UMass also demands that the university, “reinvest in projects and funds that do not perpetuate racism, classism, sexism and other systems of oppression,” according to a statement the group issued Tuesday.
According to Carvalho, a group of protesters would “risk arrest” and planned to remain in the administration building after the 5 p.m. closing time Tuesday. He said Divest UMass had collected a bail fund through community donations, calling it “jail support.”
“We want to make sure no student has to incur a personal charge,” Carvalho said.
Reel said that students who planned to remain in Whitmore after 5 p.m. Tuesday met with a trainer to better understand their legal rights. Divest UMass organizers declined to say how many protesters would remain in the building after it closed.
Before protesters entered Whitmore to join the sit-in, they were required to have a 30-minute training session with UMass Divest volunteers at a table outside the building. According to Carvalho, the training session familiarizes students with their legal rights, the risks of getting arrested, and the university’s picketing code and code of student conduct.
“We want all students to feel responsible for one another during the protest,” Carvalho said.
After they complete the training, protesters were given a piece of orange felt to pin to their clothing in support of Divest UMass. A volunteer then ushered them upstairs to the chancellor’s third-floor office.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, volunteers brought pizza, drinks, and snacks to students participating in the sit-in. A barefoot volunteer in cuffed jeans walked up and down the hallway asking protesters to keep the hallway as open as possible.
Many of the protesters sat quietly in the hallway and used their laptops, many of which had signs supporting the protest taped to the cover.